“For the Iranian regime, the West’s agreement to a nuclear deal was another sign of weakness, irresolution and short-termism. Iran will be free from any constraint after 15 years, and indeed it can prepare for the rapid acquisition of nuclear capability well before then. And all the time it can use, and has used, western danegeld to build up the armed forces now merrily slaughtering Syrian civilians.

I strongly support any action to counter Iran’s advance and help Syria’s innocents but I fear that the moment of greatest opportunity passed in 2013. If Iran now wins its war in Syria it will turn its attentions more widely. It is already supporting the Houthi takeover of Yemen, fomenting unrest in majority-Shia Bahrain, funding Islamic State’s offshoot in the Sinai, extending its hold over Iraq’s political culture and seeking to radicalise Shia minorities in other states such as Saudi Arabia. Iran has rekindled its relationship with Hamas and will deploy Hezbollah to terrorise Israel from the bases that it will shortly control on the Lebanese and Syrian borders.”

A pile of nasty comments have appeared below the line.

Gove was on Dateline today. Craig has blogged it. Today’s elephant in the studio was to do with antisemitism. Lefties have suddenly noticed that a wave of overt antisemitism has been unleashed and, ignoring the jumbo sized reality (that the most consistent antisemitism emanates from Islam and its sycophantic toadies) they accuse the alt-Right. In a massive case of group deflection and denial they have decided that the emergence of the alt-Right (Breitbart and Steve Bannon) has suddenly made it okay to be racist. (Okay, but only for the far / alt-right.)

I don’t know if Steve Bannon is an actual antisemite or not, but the particular examples offered by those making the allegation seem flimsy to me.

It’s almost as if the antisemitic lefties are facing a cognitively dissonant dilemma. They’ve suddenly become aware that their own racist (antisemitic) tendency threatens their occupancy of the moral high ground - (they go lower, we go higher etc) so they flap their arms at the opposition furiously.

2 comments:

Gove has many virtues. But perhaps grasp of the Middle Eastern complexities isn't one.

If we had gone into bomb IS in Syria, our contribution would hardly have been a weighty one, particularly given our squeamishness in attacking civilian areas.

The real signficance would have been our taking sides in Syria. We weren't being invited in by the Syrian government so the only possible interpretation would have been that we were there to support the non-IS rebels, many probably most of whom favour full Sharia imposition in one form or another.

Iran of course would have represented it as the UK interfering on behalf of Saudi Arabia the Shias' Sunni oppressors...and they would have been right.

Gove, Osborne and the rest need to accept that Saudi Arabia is not our friend. It is a deadly enemy that has been working to undermine our own political systems for many decades now.

The question is why did the UK support the Obama deal with Iran, which gave them everything they want?

Gove, George Osborne, the BBC etc. are all in with the same War Party that supported Clinton. They want war with Russia, regime change in Syria, Iran, Moscow and Beijing. But with the UKs paltry military (20,000 combat troops, 200 tanks, 19 ships, 150 aircraft) its all hot air for Saudi benefit. Even the US can't afford it: Trumps 350-ship Navy is a delusion. His army still hasn't recovered from defeats in Iraq and Afghan. The US has a 15 trillion Debt. So everyone is shouting stupidities but not involving. Osborne is as stupid as Gove ...and Corbyn...